Together, alone
by leylastar
Summary: Edward is a senior in high school with a secret - He's gay. When he meets Jasper, his life changes but with an already forced family life, will Edward find the strength to come out, or will he continue to hide his true self to please his father?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

It was a Wednesday afternoon and I was stuck in gym. Usually that shit doesn't bother me, but today I was finding it hard to concentrate. It was getting pretty dark outside despite the fact it was three in the afternoon and, of course, it was pissing it down with rain. In a place like forks you get used to the rain pretty fucking quickly, but that doesn't mean that none of us were annoyed when it happened. It was November after all, everyone was hoping for a couple of inches of snow at least, but every day we were always met with the soft patting of rain falling of every goddamn surface. It was enough to drive any man insane.

But that's beside the point. I couldn't put my usual enthusiasm for sports into good practise today, because I was putting all my effort into not paying attention to _him_. I hadn't kept my secret this long by drooling over other boys after all, but he just looked so gorgeous standing there, and it was so fucking hard to ignore him when his skin was glistening with sweat and he was panting for breath. His usually curly blonde hair was starting to straighten at the tips, sticking to the skin on his face and slightly obstructing his eyes. I subconsciously licked my lips as I continued to watch him as he ran across the gym and tackled Newton for the ball. I was just standing there, staring at him in a trance. The way he moved across the gym was enticing and I couldn't help but let my mind wander to images of his sweaty body on top of mine in bed…

_No Edward! Not now. You can't think this now. You've worked too fucking hard to keep your secret, you can't blow it now. You're with Bella. People think you love Bella. _

This was getting stupid. Who was this guy anyway? I didn't even know his name; I'd barely even seen him before, and now I was thinking of him in bed? I moved across the gym towards Emmett, who was now swearing under his breath for losing that point, hoping that he might help me find some distraction.

"Fuck Edward. We're losing" He panted.

"You've got to admit man, he's fucking good. Maybe you should think about letting him join the team?" I inwardly cursed at myself. If he was on the team I'd be distracted all the time. There was a distinct possibility that people would find out and then what? I'd be alone. No one would talk to me. Not even Emmett and especially not my dad. _Hell_, I thought, _Emmett would probably be the one to start it all._

"You need to take him out, Edward." He replied, completely ignoring what I'd just said.

I looked at him incredulously. "You can't be serious."

"Tackle him so he's out of the game. We can't lose this."

"Emmett man, this is just gym…" But he cut me off.

"Edward, tackle him. We can't lose this." He looked deadly serious. I couldn't believe it. But that was Emmett. He took all sports way to seriously. It was his passion. Even when he was younger, all he thought or cared about was sport. That's probably how he grew up to be so huge. Emmet was same height as me but he was hench as fuck. The guy was a serious weight lifter. His muscularity has gone to his head though, and he uses his intimidating physique to control everybody in the school. Including me.

I looked up over at the blonde boy. He had his eyes closed and his lips were slightly parted as he brushed away his hair from his face.

_There is no way I can do this without getting a hard on_.

When coach blew the whistle, Emmett nudged me forward. The serious look on his face was still there. For the next ten minutes I kept my eyes on the boy, watching him move across the gymnasium in awe. As soon as he got the ball I ran forward and tackled him to the ground, landing on top of him. The ball flew out of his hands and landed somewhere away from us, completely forgotten.

All I could think in that moment was how much I wanted to lean down and kiss his beautiful full lips and taste the salty sweat on his skin. I could feel my cock starting to stir and it took me a couple or seconds to realise I was still straddling him. I looked down and saw that his face slightly distorted in pain.

_Shit._

Coach came over then and pulled me from him by my shirt. "Bench, Edward." He growled.

"But coach.." I tried.

"I said, go sit on the bench Masen." He yelled.

_Dammit Emmett. This is the last time you talk me into anything. _A vow I knew I wasn't going to stand by. Like I said before, everyone was intimidated by him and would do practically anything he said, just to avoid getting beaten up.

I walked over and sat on the bench at the side of the gym and I watched as coach checked if the boy, who was still on the floor, was okay.

"Newton." He called out, "Can you take Jasper here to the school nurse?"

"No, no. I can go myself, don't worry." He said as he slowly got up, wincing slightly. I watched as he walked to the gym entrance, throwing a scowl in my direction before exiting. I looked down at my shoes. I felt like crap.

As I sat there for the last twenty minutes of the lesson, I thought about him. Jasper. I'd never really given him a second look before, but that was probably because I was too scared to look at a boy for more than a second for fear of someone discovering my secret. No one knew I was gay and I was going to keep it that way. It's not that I was in denial. I accepted that I was gay and I didn't really care if the kids at school were going to treat me like shit. After all, I was only there for the rest of the year. I kept it a secret for my dad. I couldn't do that to him. If he found out, it wouldn't matter if I went to an Ivy League college to study medicine. He'd never be proud of me, and he sure as hell would never love me if he knew. I couldn't let this happen now.

Jasper walked back into the gym then, just when the bell signalling the end of school rang. I got up to leave, wanting to avoid Jasper at all costs.

"Masen, sit back down. I need to talk to you." Coach yelled. I sighed and sat grudgingly back down on the bench. "Whitlock, you might want to take a seat too."

Jasper turned and sat next to me with the scowl still on his face.

I wanted to talk to him, apologise for my actions and try to explain that I don't usually act like that but when I looked at him, I couldn't find the words. He was truly a beautiful creature. His blue eyes stood out starkly against his pale skin. A look of pain etched on his features but I couldn't tell if it was physical or mental. Either way it didn't matter. I just wanted to make him feel better but I just sat there, unable to say a fucking word.

"Edward, would you please care to explain to me what the hell you were thinking?" Coach said in forced calm voice. I could tell he was fuming though, since his face was all screwed up like he was constipated. I knew I couldn't lie to him. He'd been coaching here for the last 34 years. He'd seen and heard everything and he wasn't about to accept some bullshit story from me.

"I was just trying to get the ball, and we just landed awkwardly..." I tried. I figured it was worth a shot at least.

"That's bull Masen." He replied simply. I sighed. I knew that wasn't going to work. I looked tentatively up at Jasper. His eyes were fixed on the floor. The look of pain still there.

"Jasper." I said. He looked up and his eyes met mine for a split second before he cast them down again. "I'm sorry. Really, I am. I didn't think… I just… I didn't mean to hurt you. Are we cool?"

He looked up and gave me a wry smile and nodded. "Yeah man. We're cool."

"Well I'm glad we sorted that out. But don't think you're off the hook Masen. I'll expect you here every day for two weeks for detention. You hear me?"

"Yes coach." I replied, dejectedly. He motioned for me and Jasper to go shower, and walked off back to his office.

Jasper and I walked to the locker room in an awkward silence whilst I thought to myself. _Great. Emmett's going to kill me. I'm going to miss __**two weeks **__of football practice! Shit._

The locker room was empty when we walked in. Everyone had already left, most choosing to shower at home. I preferred to avoid my house for as long as possible, so I pulled off my shirt and tossed it into my open locker. Grabbing a clean towel from the basket and laying it on the bench, I kicked off my shoes and reached down to take off my socks. From the corner of my eye, I could see Jasper in just his boxers.

With his back to me, he slowly stripped off, revealing his soft round buttocks. He reached over and wrapped a towel around himself before walking over to the showers.

I gulped. _Fuck me_. I took a minute to contain myself before removing my shorts and boxers, grabbing a towel and going to what was going to be ten minutes of my own personal hell.

I stepped into the misty shower and stood quite far away from Jasper but I could still see him. The hot water was cascading down his back making the skin it came into contact with, turn a rosy pink. His naked body was a glorious sight. While he may not have matched Emmett's brawn, he was still very muscular and as he reached up to brush is hair away, I could see the muscles down his back moving in smooth motions. I averted my eyes and tried to concentrate on the tiles in front of me. When that didn't work I closed my eyes and tried to think of Bella, but it was impossible. The site of his naked body was etched into my mind. I opened my eyes to sneak a peak and saw him lathering up his body with soap.

I couldn't help the vision that crossed my mind of me standing behind him my head on his shoulders placing soft kisses on his neck, whilst my arms snaked around him lathering up his muscular chest before lowering one hand down to his large, thick, cock and stroking it in a slow rhythm. I let out a soft moan and quickly turned to the side, facing away from him. I couldn't let him see the raging erection I was now sporting. I looked over my shoulder to check if he had seen my problem. It would kill me if he had. I couldn't believe I could jeopardise the relationship between me and my father over this. I felt so stupid.

To say that what I saw shocked me, would be the understatement of the fucking century. Jasper had obviously turned to face me when I moaned and there he was, in all his glory. Naked, wet, and rock fucking hard. The sight made my mouth water. I allowed myself to briefly entertain the idea of me going down on him right there, when I realised that I was standing there, just staring at him over my shoulder. He was hard. I was hard. And then he fucking bolted.

I wanted to go after him there and then, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to go in my condition, so I willed my erection to go away, but it was a stubborn fuck. I tried everything, before turning to my last resort. I imagined Rosalie as my girlfriend. Man that shit worked every time.

I got out of the shower and grabbed my towel before looking for Jasper. I needed to tell him I didn't care. I wasn't like Emmett like he so obviously thought I was. I wanted to tell him that his secret was safe with me. Hell I even wanted to fucking tell him about me and my secret but by the time I got to him, he was already pulling on his shoes and darting out of the gym.

I moved across to my locker and began to get dressed back into my jeans and t-shirt. What the fuck just happened? Did this mean Jasper was gay too? Was he attracted to me? I leaned my head against the gym lockers. This was too fucking complicated and I didn't want to think about it, so I picked up my bag and walked out into the parking lot. I had no other option but to go home and pretend nothing happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/n**

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who put this chapter on their alerts. I really appreciate it! Also, a huge thanks to everyone who left a review for the last chapter. They really inspire me. I'm so glad you guys like it!

I also want to give a huge shout out to Whitlock's girl, who recommended my fic on Twislash unveiled last Tuesday. For those of you who haven't seen the blog before, the link is; www(dot)twislash(dot)blogspot(dot)com

Obviously I don't own this. I just like to mess with the characters.

_____________________________________________________________________

_I picked up my bag and walked out into the parking lot. I had no other option but to go home and pretend nothing happened._

Trying to forget the events of yesterday turned out to be a lot fucking harder than I had initially thought. I got home from school and as usual, had the house to myself since Carlisle was at work, Alice had gone to Rosalie's and Esme was passed out in her bedroom, most likely with a bottle of wine in her hand. I grabbed myself a bite to eat from the kitchen and headed upstairs to my bedroom.

My room was my sanctuary from my family and the outside world. The one place I could go to, just to get away from it all. We were a wealthy family, since Carlisle was a plastic surgeon and lived in a large house, which allowed me room to fit both a piano and double bed in my room quite spaciously. I often spent my nights locked in my room just letting out my emotions through my piano. It was the best form of emotional release in my eyes. However, since I was already behind in History, I gave my beloved piano a miss for tonight and instead, intended to take my mind off things by doing some of the work I had been set that day.

Despite being part of the 'popular crowd' I was pretty geeky, doing pretty well at school with A's in all of my subjects apart from AP History. For some reason, I just could never grasp that shit. It was the only thing preventing me having a 5.0 average.

I lay on my double bed and grabbing my textbooks from my bag, I tried to lose myself in my studies.

I had managed to be able to work for a while, memorising dates for an upcoming test, but eventually thoughts of Jasper tempted me from my work with their distraction and finding no other solution, I tossed the book aside and got under the covers.

Pulling down my pants and boxers, I thought back to how he looked in the shower at school, all wet and hard as fuck.

_Standing with my back against the wall, I watched as he washed his hair. His head was tilted back as he rinsed the shampoo out, his lips slightly parted. I leaned in and kissed the exposed skin on his neck, and was awarded with a soft moan. He looked down at me with a mischievous look on his face, leaning down and closing the distance between our lips, kissing me deeply, his tongue softly caressing my own. Instinctively, my hands went up to his hair, weaving themselves into his wet, blonde curls. _

I started stroking my erection slowly, imagining his hands in place of my own.

_Moaning into the kiss, I feel Jasper's hips thrust lightly against mine, causing his erection rub against my own and me to break the kiss. His hand reaches down between our bodies, and he grasps my cock. Slowly, he begins to stroke me. Teasing me with his touch. I unwrap my hands from around his neck and take his glorious cock in my hands, matching his pace with my own. At this, Jasper speeds up his movements, and my back curves away from the wall, bringing my hips closer to his._

My hand was working faster now, the other reaching down to massage my balls at the same rhythm. I turned my face towards my pillow, unable to control the moans escaping me now.

_Without stopping his work, Jasper leans forward and kisses my neck and I could feel my balls constricting._

With one last thrust of my hips against my hand, my orgasm ripped through me and I let the feeling take over.

After cleaning myself up, I fell asleep in my post-orgasm haze. No one came to check up on me.

***

Today was just as fucking hard to concentrate, if not worse. Jasper seemed to be everywhere I looked, since he was in all but one of my classes. I couldn't believe I'd never noticed that shit before. He even sat next to me in History and from the looks of today's class was fucking good at it.

As much as I tried to pay attention, I couldn't. I spent the whole lesson sneaking peaks at Jasper, and on more than one occasion, catching his eye. Each time that happened though, I blushed like a fucking girl and looked back down at my desk. The guy was going to think I was a nut if I kept this up any longer.

The bell rang signalling lunch and I rushed my way towards the cafeteria thrilled for the distraction from him.

With a slice of pizza in hand, I sat down at my usual table with my step-sister, Alice, my girlfriend, Bella, Emmett and his girlfriend, Rosalie, two other cheerleaders, Jessica and Lauren and a couple of guys from the football team, Mike and Tyler. I took my usual seat next to Bella, putting my arm around her and leaning in to kiss her forehead. Out of the corner of my eye, I fucking see Jasper sitting down with some nerds and he catches my eye. Only This time it's his turn to blush and avert his eyes.

Bella turns her face towards me and leans in for a kiss, her eyes are full of sadness and I just feel so fucking guilty for even thinking about liking a guy when I'm with her, because she doesn't deserve that shit. I returned her kiss with a bit too much fervour than necessary in a school cafeteria and she pulled back, giggling.

"What was that for?" she asked breathlessly.

"Just cause." I said, shrugging. I look over my shoulder and I saw Jasper with his head down, a look of hurt on his face. It really shouldn't have bothered me, but it did. I felt guilty for kissing my own fucking girlfriend. I turned back towards the table and got stuck into my lunch, pushing thoughts of Jasper from my mind.

The girls were planning a party for this weekend. Esme was checking into rehab again on Friday and Carlisle had to fly over to LA for a "business weekend", so we had the house to ourselves. It's not like we weren't usually home alone, that was a common occurrence, but we never had that many parties and Alice, being Alice, decided that this should change in our final year at Forks.

They had pretty much had the party sorted, and Alice was just finalizing plans on the guest list, while the others vetoed. Having nothing to contribute to this topic, I found myself watching Jasper out of the corner of my eye, again. God, I was getting obsessed. He was laughing with his friends and he looked so unbelievably gorgeous. I clenched my fists on top of the table as I willed myself not to get a boner just from fucking looking at him. I turned back to the table and saw Emmett looking at me strangely. I bowed my head, praying he hadn't figured it out.

The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch and Bella sighed.

"Ugh, I have maths now and I'm going to get that test back along with my homework and will have failed them both." She said, her face full with worry.

"Celebrate. You'll finally get your double D's." Rosalie replied before walking off, Emmett trailing behind her chuckling. Bella blushed and crossed her arms over her chest. I moved over to her and put my arms around her waist and noticed she felt thinner than usual.

"Don't worry Bella. I bet you did well. Don't listen to Rose. You know she's just jealous." I leaned in and kissed her cheek. "I love you. See you after school."

She looked away, saying nothing and I walked off in the opposite direction to get to my next class.

***

After the bell rang signalling the end of school, I headed to my locker, only to find Emmett leaning against it, obviously waiting for me.

"Edward, man. What the hell is up with you? You've been acting weird ever since gym yesterday."

"It's nothing Emmett, seriously."

_Oh God_. The last thing I needed was for him to find out.

"I know it's not 'nothing' Edward, come on spill. Has it got something to do with that Jasper kid?"

"What? No. Why the fuck would it?" I said, busying myself with putting my books away in hopes that it would hide the panic in my eyes.

"Cause it's his fault you have detention for two weeks."

"Oh. That. I'm sorry man, I shouldn't have tackled him so bad. You know how coach gets…"

"We both know you wouldn't be in trouble if it wasn't for him crying to the nurse like the fucking pussy he is."

"Emmett, just leave it man. It doesn't fucking matter."

"Like hell it does. We have a game in three weeks, and you'll be off practise for two of them. That doesn't fucking bode well, does it? That fucker is going to get what's coming to him, that's for sure."

He stalked off in what I assumed was in search of Jasper. I started after him to try and persuade him not to go through with this, but knew he would never listen to me and it would just raise suspicion. Noticing I was late for detention I headed down to the gym and prayed that Jasper didn't get it too badly.

Not for the first time, I wished I could just stand up to Emmett. I was the pussy, not Jasper.

No less than an hour later I was walking back out into the parking lot to get the hell out of there, when I heard a small commotion coming from the opposite direction. Since it was quite late and I knew not many people were around, I went to investigate. Behind one of the buildings stood Emmett, his hands clenching Jasper's shirt, pinning him against the wall.

"You think you can mess with my friends and get away with it? You fucking faggot."

"No, please. Let me go!" He whimpered. The panic was clearly evident on his face and it killed me to watch. I moved towards Emmett, just as he had pulled his arm back to hit him and I grabbed it mid-air.

"Stop! Emmett. What the fuck are you doing?!" I nearly screamed.

"Get the fuck off me, Edward. I'm teaching this faggot a lesson."

"Emmett, don't do this, he did nothing wrong."

Ignoring me, he pushed me away from his reach, knocking me to the floor and turned back to Jasper.

"You speak of this to no one. You got it?" Jasper nodded fearfully and Emmett stomped off towards the car park.

I was shocked that Emmett had backed down so quickly, seeing as though he had never listened to anyone in his entire life. I picked myself off the ground and walked over towards Jasper, who had slid down the wall, his head in his hands.

Sitting down next to him, I placed a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up suddenly, the fearful look still on his face. His eyes were red, and his bottom lip was bleeding and obviously swollen. I thought I had stopped Emmett in time, but evidently not.

"I… He…God. I'm sorry." I stumbled with my apology, trying to find the words to explain what had just happened.

"Just forget it." He replied, moving away from my touch.

"Jasper, I…"

"I said forget it, okay?" He got up and made his way to the parking lot and is on his bike, riding away by the time I catch up. Just before he rounded the corner out of school, he turned and gave me a glaring look.

Shit. What have I done?


	3. Chapter 3

A/N

I'm sorry! I know this isn't good enough but please know I feel terrible for leaving it so long between updates! I haven't had the internet. Forgive me?

Thank you for the reviews/ support that was given for the last chapter. I don't have a beta, so thanks to everyone who pointed out a couple of errors. I really appreciate it.

I promise the next chapter will be up soon. I'm already working on it.

Disclaimer. I don't own anything. Just using it for my own entertainment.

Saturday morning, I woke up early from a bad nights sleep. Apparently, my mind was not content with spending my every waking hour obsessing over Jasper and now had me dreaming about him too. What was it about this boy that had me so worked up? You know, apart from his piercing blue eyes, his plump lips and his beautiful curly blonde hair…I could feel my dick starting to stir. Fuck. I needed to keep my mind off him.

Ever since I first figured out I was gay, I had managed to go about my everyday life without a hitch, acting normal and then along he came, changing my life with him. I only had a year until I left for college. Until my dad would finally be proud, instead of resenting me. One year until I can live my life the way I wanted to.

It really fucking pissed me off that one guy could change all of that in a heartbeat.

My stomach rumbled loudly then, and I rolled out of bed, making my way downstairs to grab something to eat for breakfast. Walking through the house was like entering another dimension. I was amazed by all the decorations adorning every surface. Alice always tended to go a little overboard with things like this. Since it had been Halloween on Tuesday, she had decided to go for a monsters and ghouls theme and had therefore chosen to decorate the entire house in orange and black streamers, placing spider webs in the corners and fake tombstones dotted around the house. She had even thrown a couple of skeletons in the closet, to scare people when they put their jackets away. The irony wasn't lost on me and I briefly considered dressing as one and hiding in there myself as part of my costume but I knew I wouldn't get away with it. Alice would make me socialise.

I walked into the kitchen, immediately noticing the emptiness of it without Carlisle and Esme's presence. They must have left already. I hadn't seen them in days. I suppressed the feeling of emptiness that arose in my chest during such occasions and opened the cupboard to get some cereal.

I could never understand why Esme had stayed with Carlisle for so long, despite the affairs he has constantly, or as he liked to call them "business trips". We all knew that he was fucking whatever nurse he managed to get his hands on that week. My only guess was that it was easier for her to fuel her prescription pills addiction, what with being married to a plastic surgeon and all. Besides, Carlisle was rich enough to fund her sporadic rehab trips and occasional 'enhancements'. I sighed as I sat down at the table and got stuck into my cereal. I tried to remember happier times, but could only come up with vague memories of my grandparents and not a single fucking one containing my beloved father.

My mind wandered back to Jasper, contemplating if he was going to make an appearance tonight. I highly doubted it after the stunt Emmett pulled two days ago. When Jasper didn't turn up for school the next day, I drove to his house as soon as the bell rang to check up on him, but under the premise of inviting him to the party tonight. It was possibly the worst idea I had ever had, but I couldn't help it. I needed to see him and maybe when I was there I could talk to him. Explain what happened. Call it a guilty conscience.

_After driving for twenty minutes, I finally arrived at his house. It was near my own, on the outskirts of Forks. It was quite a small house, with an even smaller front garden that was well kept. I saw Jasper's bike leaning against the front of the house, and two cars in the driveway. Parking in the street, I slowly got out of my Volvo and instantly felt nervous. What the fuck had I got myself into? It was too late to turn back now, so I knocked on the door and hoped he wouldn't tell me to fuck off._

_When the door opened, I had thought I had the wrong house. Before me, stood a boy my age, with a dark complexion, long dark brown hair that went down to his shoulders and eyes that were almost black. Despite me having a good two inches on him, he looked me up and down as if he was about to take me on._

"_What the fuck do __**you**__ want?" he growled._

"_I need to talk to Jasper. Is he in?"_

"_No, he's not…" He began, but he was interrupted by Jasper, walking towards the door._

"_It's fine Seth, I can handle this." Seth gave him a look that said, he'd be near if he needed any help before walking off into what I assumed to be the living room._

_Jasper looked down to the ground, avoiding eye contact at all cost. _

"_Can I help you?" He whispered, pushing his blonde curls from his eyes. He looked pretty bad, with a deep purple bruise over one eye, and his lip still swollen._

"_I… I came to see if you were alright. You weren't in school today."_

_He laughed humourlessly. "No kidding."_

"_I'm sorry about Emmett, I tried to get him to stop…" I trailed off not really knowing what to say to him. I just needed him to understand. "Look, I didn't tell him about what happened in the shower. That's not what it was about. He's just… Emmett."_

_Jasper looked up at me then for a split second, a slight blush forming on his cheeks, before looking over his shoulder. He took a step forward and closed the door over behind him._

"_I can't talk about this right now. Not with Seth here." The panic was evident in his voice._

"_Is he your boyfriend?" I asked, fighting to keep the jealousy out of my voice. Jasper looked down and nodded slightly before giving me a pleading look._

"_Don't worry, I wont go spreading it around the school. Are you sure you're going to be ok?"_

"_Yeah don't worry about me. Just a couple of bruises."_

"_There's a party at my house tomorrow, if you're interested. Consider it my olive branch?"_

"_Yeah, I'm sure Emmett would be fucking thrilled to see me." He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Look I really don't want any trouble. I… I just want to keep my head down for a while."_

"_Oh. Well. The invitation is still open if you change your mind." I said, smiling as I Got into my Volvo and drove off, praying he would show up the next day._

I sighed. Of course he had a boyfriend. What did you think? He was going to sit at home pining after you? He thinks you have a girlfriend. You _do_ have a girlfriend. He doesn't know you're gay, and even if he did know and he was single, what makes you think he'd be attracted to you? Feeling suddenly sick, I threw the half-eaten cereal in the bin and placed the bowl in the sink before heading back up to bed.

"EDWARD? EDDIE? ARE YOU HOME?" The yelling woke me from my sleep.

"Yes. Jesus Alice, I'm right here! No need to yell, you'll turn me deaf." I replied. Opening my bedroom door. Alice was stood outside her bedroom wearing a short dress that was far from appropriate for the autumn weather, her usually short black hair was long and sleek. I could only assume she had put in extensions for the night.

"Oh thank god." She said, dragging a box down the hall. "Can you help me put up the rest of the decorations?"

"Alice, how much more do we need? I don't think there's any space left."

"Edward, more is more. Do you not know anything? Jeez." She retorted, kicking the box over to me. "Now get started. I would help, but I need to go and pick up our costumes from the fancy dress store."

"_Our _costumes? What the fuck you talking about?"

"You didn't think you could get away with your usual crappy dress sense did you? I hired you a costume for tonight, duh!"

"Fuck. Alice, how many times? I can dress myself."

"Stop whining and deal with it. We're dressing as vampires."

I sighed, defeated. "Fine. I'll wear the damn thing."

"Good. The girls are coming over earlier, so we can get ready. You may be dating Bella, but I don't want you hanging around. Keep yourself busy, ok?"

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever Alice. See you later."

I watched as she left the house, her heels making a clacking noise as she walked across the wooden floor downstairs, before checking out the contents of the box. It was just filled with more streamers and plastic monsters. I sighed as I picked up the decorations, headed downstairs and struggled to find empty spots on the wall to place them.

An hour and a half later, I was finally done. I was interrupted from admiring my work by a knock at the door.

"For fucks sake Alice, take your keys with you next time." I said, opening the door. "Oh. Jasper? Sorry. I thought you were Alice. What are you doing here?" He looked at me nervously and shuffled his feet as he spoke.

"Sorry. I probably should have called or something, but I couldn't come to the party. Not with everyone being here. I just needed to talk to you. I shouldn't have come. I'll just leave." I reached out and grabbed his arm to prevent him from walking away. Just touching his arm made my whole body feel as if it were on fire.

"No, wait. Don't leave." I held the door open, and watched as he gazed around the room. His eyes were big, shining in awe, and his slightly parted lips made me want to push him against the wall and just kiss him and…

"Wow. You guys have really gone all out. I'm impressed." His voice pulled me from my thoughts, and I blushed, partly at my imagination and partly at his compliment.

"Yeah, Alice is like that." I said nervously running my hands through my hair. Jasper caught my eye and looked away immediately, biting his lip.

Trying to break the awkward silence, I added "The house is empty, but Alice might be home soon. Do you want to talk upstairs?"

"Yeah. Sure. That sounds good."

I led him up to my bedroom and sat down on my bed. He sat next to me and looked down at his lap, his blonde curls not only covering his bruise but also his bright blue eyes.

"So…" I began. He looked up at me and smiled.

"Sorry. I'm not making this easy."

"It doesn't have to be hard. You can trust me. I promise." I put my hand on his shoulder. He gave me a meek smile and was silent for a couple of minutes before starting.

"I wish I didn't have to hide it, but I get the feeling that people wouldn't exactly accept it. I mean, Emmett's already calling me a faggot now. Can you imagine what it'd be like if he knew the truth?"

"Don't worry. Not everyone's like that." I felt this strong need to reassure him because I knew exactly how he felt. I almost wanted to confide in him my secret, but couldn't quite bring myself to. He was so much stronger than me.

"Listen. About what happened in the locker room shower. I'm so embarrassed… I-"

"You don't need to explain yourself. No harm done, right?"

"Yeah. I guess. Look, I should go. I don't even know why I came in the first place. I guess I needed reassurance that I could trust you or some shit. I'm sorry if I disturbed you. I'll see myself out."

"It's no problem Jasper. I know you don't know me that well, but you can trust me and I'm always here for you if you need me." He smiled at that. He looked so fucking breathtaking when he smiled. The atmosphere in the room suddenly changed, and I found myself leaning towards him, slowly. My body seemed to be acting of its own accord. There were just a couple of centimetres between us. I closed my eyes, trying to find enough courage to close the gap, when the front door slammed and I could hear Alice, Bella and Rosalie giggling over something as they came upstairs and went into Alice's room. Both Jasper and I jumped at the noise.

"Dammit Alice." I muttered. Turning my head towards the door. Jasper quickly stood from the bed.

"I have to go. I'm sorry." He ran from the room and out of the house, narrowly missing my sister and her friends as he left. I closed my bedroom door and banged my head against it. I was such an idiot.


End file.
